"How is this not the hugest show? It’s the improbable combination of Barry Lyndon and The Shield. With its jaw-dropping act breaks and rug-pulling twists, this violent soap opera as social commentary on sex work boasts two acting legends (Samantha Morton and Lesley Manville) going toe-to-toe on a weekly basis."

"Whoa! From the very beginning, it is the original soap opera, and I loved every second of the drama! To watch a writer like Dickens yet again (I had already read “Great Expectations,”) weave so many characters’ storylines together with one another… This book required you to pay attention to every character and every word and served to remind this: no person or thing is insignificant."

"… But I knew I should pick out a book book as well, so I grabbed the Thomas Hardy to balance it out. I remember trying to read it, highlighting all the words I didn’t understand. I gave it another crack a decade or so later and found it engrossing. Like a soap opera with sheep. Turns out there were woodland creatures in that one too."